JUNE 10 • 2021 | 39

“It was the right size at the 
right price with the right func-
tion,
” Tolwin says of Numilk. 
But the pandemic saw the 
machine being turned off, 
along with anything else inside 
Whole Foods that customers 
could touch. “We knew we had 
a real problem.
”
At the same time, Tolwin 
says customers turned to 
Amazon Prime, which offers 
home delivery from Whole 
Foods for its members. “We 
didn’t just have a short-term 
COVID problem,
” he contin-
ues, “but we also had a long-
term problem and that was that 
our machine works best when 
you’re in a store.
”
Tolwin began to consider 
how customers could bring the 
mini-mill home. He decided 
to work on a countertop ver-
sion that would initially go to 
coffee shops and businesses, 
then make its way into people’s 
homes. The vision included 
a small stainless-steel kitchen 
appliance, similar to a Keurig 
machine, that could create a 
variety of plant-based milks, 
protein shakes and lattes.

MAKING IT TO TV
Tolwin took this idea to Shark 
Tank, a TV show where entre-
preneurs can secure business 
deals. He never considered it 
until a friend mentioned it in 
passing one day. “I figured the 
most difficult stage was getting 
them to read the application,
” 

he says of Shark Tank. “They get 
30,000 applications a year.
”
Yet out of 30,000, Tolwin’s 
application made it to the next 
round. From there, he went 
through an extensive interview 
process that he says combined 
“every application that I’ve ever 
had in my life.
” After months 
of interviewing and what he 
recalls as “countless exercises,
” 
Numilk’s countertop business 
plan made it to an episode. 
On-air, Tolwin and Savino pre-
sented the idea.
“Here’s our goal, here’s our 
plan and here’s our prepara-
tion,
” Tolwin says of the outline 
presented to Shark Tank. “We’re 
going to execute it to the best of 
our ability, and hopefully we’ll 
get the outcome that we want.
”
That outcome was a $2 
million deal that Tolwin says 
will go toward building out 
the commercial side of the 
Numilk business. He’s partner-
ing with coffee shops, small 
grocery stores and high-end 
cafes to bring Numilk to their 
establishments. While there are 
no Michigan locations locked 
down yet, Tolwin hopes to one 
day scale Numilk to his home 
state.
In the background, he 
continues to work on the 
home-based unit and keeps on 
dreaming big. “We absolutely 
will scale internationally,
” he 
says of Numilk’s long-term 
plans. “We’re uniquely suited 
to it.
” 

JVS Human Services’ Senior Vice President 
Nancy Bogdan has been honored along-
side only three others in the U.S. with the 
NCSE (National Council of SourceAmerica 
Employers) Management Excellence Award. 
The national honor is presented annually to 
individuals who have displayed excellence in 
leadership in the management of an AbilityOne participat-
ing nonprofit agency and significantly advanced employ-
ment opportunities for people with disabilities. Each 
winner received a trophy and $1,000 in SourceAmerica 
Training Incentive Vouchers for the winner’s nonprofit 
agency.

A

t its springboard 
meeting, the Jewish 
Fund, established 
in 1997 from the sale pro-
ceeds of Sinai Hospital to 
the Detroit Medical Center, 
awarded the following new 
and continuation grants:
• Alzheimer’s Disease 
and Related Disorders 
Association: $15,000 for 
a one-year grant to train 
culturally competent vol-
unteers in the Jewish com-
munity to expand capacity 
for educational and support 
programs. 
• Birth Detroit: $29,910 
for a one-year grant to pro-
vide coordination of inter-
nal and external referrals 
to support perinatal health 
services. 
• Children’s Foundation: 
$20,000 for the second 
year of a two-year grant 
of $40,000 to provide eye-
glasses to visually impaired 
students in need within the 
Hamtramck Public Schools. 
• Coalition on Temporary 
Shelter: $14,500 for a 
one-year grant to support 
improved health outcomes 
for young children residing 
at its Peggy’s Place location. 
 
• FernCare Free Clinic: 
$13,923 for a one-year 
grant to support expansion 
of care to patients with 
chronic care conditions. 
• Hope Village 
Revitalization: $30,348 for 
a one-year grant to embed 
a community health worker 
to support health access 
for residents of the HOPE 
Village neighborhood. 
• Isaac Agree Downtown 

Synagogue: $400,000 for 
the first year of a three-year 
grant of $550,000 to sup-
port its building renovation 
and shared workspace col-
laboration.
• Jewish Family Service: 
$143,405 for the first year 
of a three-year grant of 
$401,675 to implement a 
Zero Suicide framework 
internally and with com-
munity partners to advance 
and expand suicide preven-
tion work. 
• Jewish Family Service: 
$280,000 for the third year 
of a three-year grant of 
$900,000 to maintain daily 
functioning and improve 
quality of life for vulnerable 
older adults aging in com-
munity. 
• Kadima: $268,000 for a 
one-year grant to support 
the integration costs of 
Kadima and JVS, should a 
merger be approved.
• Knights and Dames 
of the Order of Malta 
Medical and Dental Clinic: 
$15,000 for a one-year 
grant to expand services 
to an increased number of 
patients with its move to its 
new facility. 
• North Star Reach: 
$25,000 for a one-year 
grant to support its Sickle 
Cell camp. 
• Repair the World: 
$48,700 for the third year 
of a three-year grant of 
$168,350 to deepen and 
expand its service and 
learning programming for 
young adults, teens and 
families. 

Jewish Fund Awards 
New Grants

